


Stick Together For Me

by KayGryffin



Series: Stuck Together [8]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Adopted Peter, Adopted Sibling Relationship, Avengers Family, Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, BAMF Tony Stark, Canonical Character Death, Infinity Gauntlet, Parent Tony Stark, Precious Peter Parker, Protective Tony Stark, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-06
Updated: 2019-08-06
Packaged: 2020-08-10 05:00:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,747
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20129746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KayGryffin/pseuds/KayGryffin
Summary: But, then again, as Tony has come to learn, there is no arguing with the grand design that is time and fate. Strange had told him this was the one way, the singularity that would be saved in the eventuality that Tony currently found himself hurtling towards. This is the only way the universe can find its salvation from Thanos’ self-imposed idea of ‘greater good’.And Tony knows this.He KNOWS this....Tony imagines the future.AKA the fanfic no one needed





	Stick Together For Me

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for this. I know it's not my best. But Writer's Blocks ain't no joke. 
> 
> Brought on by what I want my dad to be like

Fifteen minutes.

The Battle lasted fifteen minutes.

Five years, and all he got was fifteen more minutes.

There’ll be moments ahead that had only just been reaffirmed that he’ll never himself get to witness. Things he wanted to help the boy with that he’ll never get to experience; things he had only dreamt of doing for five painstaking years. Proms and college applications. Acceptances and sensitive teenaged milestones. Learning how to drive and getting his degree.

Watching him play with his little sister for the first time.

Helping him move his things into their home.

Sitting down for the first in a long line of dinners as a family.

All these things that Tony wanted but would never get to see. Dreams and desires that were to be ripped from his grip before he could come to terms with their potentiality.

But, then again, as Tony has come to learn, there is no arguing with the grand design that is time and fate. Strange had told him this was the one way, the singularity that would save an infinite amount of lives from the Snap, and Peter’s life was one of those insurmountable, unquantifiable amount of lives that would be saved in the eventuality that Tony currently found himself hurtling towards. This is the only way the universe can find its salvation from Thanos’ self-imposed idea of ‘greater good’.

And Tony knows this.

He _knows _this.

But at the same time, there’s a difference between logic and emotion, and Tony doesn’t _want_ to do this. He only just got him back. He’d thought he’d lost him and he had rushed to grasp at the one last hope of getting him back, but now that he’s back and he is here and he’s fighting for his life with every fiber of his perfect being and Tony; he’s never going to get to see how he’s going to go from here, how he’s going to grow from here, and it just _hurts_, so much, to know he’s brought him back just to leave him, and it’s not what he ever wanted to do but destiny is not giving him much of a choice about.

It’s an inevitability that was chosen. The one shot of winning the war, the one shot of saving their universe, their futures.

His future.

Her future.

_Their _future.

All he had was fifteen minutes more with him.

When he realizes this, twelve were already gone. Wasted with the fight save for a singular moment towards the beginning when he gets in what would be his last hug with his son, cutting off a stream of what would’ve otherwise been kind, loving words, possibly apologetic for some strange logic only Peter could deduce, and Tony wishes he hadn’t stopped it now, just so he could experience all those little Peter idiosyncrasies just _one _last time.

He tries to remember how excited the little, simple things made Peter, like getting his own bedroom and being allowed to choose his own brand new book bag.

He tries to remember how his face would light up when the mere mention of lab time came into discussion.

He tries to remember the tentacle-like tendency he had towards cuddling, especially after Tony had come home from a long trip or a rough mission.

He tries to remember all of it, but it keeps being interrupted with hopeless imaginings of what could’ve been, what might happen once he takes control of the tides of fate, dreams and wishes he so wanted to see come true, just once.

Morgan and Peter, playing with Morgan’s new Lego set in her minuscule fort in the yard.

Peter and Morgan, tinkering in the garage way past Morgan’s bedtime, both giggling because they know Tony’s enough of a pushover to let it happen. 

Morgan, and Peter, watching cartoons together as Morgan claims Peter as her new personal throne (and Peter, of course, letting this happen).

Peter, and Morgan, at Peter’s high school graduation.

He’d always imagined the kind of big brother, little sister dynamic they’d have together, and he’d always imagined he’d be there to watch it grow. All through the long five years of mourning and heartache, he’d imagined how much Peter would’ve loved his little sister, how he would’ve cried when he’d held her for the first time, how he would’ve cheered when she’d taken her first wobbly steps, how he would’ve helped her break into the garage, how he would’ve held her hand her very first day of school.

And now, all Tony could do with his last minutes is wonder how they’ll come together after he’s dead.

He knows that this is the only way the moments he hopes for can happen, but it doesn’t make it an easier pill to swallow. The old him would’ve reveled in the fact that this would be a pinnacle moment, become the world’s savior, or he would’ve immediately shirked responsibility and done something wildly selfish. Tony isn’t sure. The person he’s become in the fifteen years since started on the path of Iron Man isn’t the man he started as, and he no longer can consolidate himself as one in the same as the man he was. This him, this current man he is, had gone through so much, had adapted to so many things and been altered by so many events; all he can think about much he’s going to miss all the people who he claims as precious in his life.

It almost makes him wish he doesn’t have to do this.

But it’s the one way. His life for everyone else’s.

_For theirs_, he thinks as he slips the infinity stone from his self-made gauntlet into the glove of his suit by way of the embedded nanotechnology. The literal kick to the gut, the impact of which the suit can do little to absorb and ruptures something Tony’s sure _isn’t_ supposed to rupture, still doesn’t hurt as much of the weight of what he knows is about to happen. He’s seen the results of the snap, both from Thanos and Bruce, beings he knows to be made up of much tougher things than his measly human mortality, and he knows that the ruptured organ causing searing pain in his side isn’t going to be the thing that does him in, not by a long shot. Just one snap ripped through the gamma-irradiated muscle of his friend’s arm and rendered it near dead.

This one will be it for him. The last sacrifice he’ll make for the good of all rather than himself. He’s slightly reminded of the last time he’d stood up to Thanos like this; hurling a nuclear bomb into his Chitauri warship, and he’s reminded of a similar feeling of hubris he’d felt on that day from Thanos’ part as the being raises his gloved hand, calling himself an inevitability as he snaps his fingers uselessly. He’s sure Thanos had felt like an inevitability that first time, too, and to a degree, he’s correct. He is an inevitability that has been hurtling on along side Tony for over a decade, doomed to collide. In a way, Thanos stands in the way of all the happiness Tony’s wanted for everyone he loves, making his final confrontation a thing decided for all of them by the powers that be, and that thought, the thought of it being _final_, helps him lift himself up, his breath heavy, painful.

_He imagines Peter chatting with Pepper while Morgan runs amuck. _

Thanos looks at him, confused and thwarted, eyes wide with anger as he realizes what the puny little Terran has done.

_He imagines Pepper greeting Clint and Hulk-Bruce (Bruce-Hulk?) as they let themselves in, Clint’s family in tow._

Tony turns the back of his hand to face Thanos, showing the stones as he moves them to their respective spots as they would’ve been placed on the gauntlet, already feeling the power tear his being to shreds.

_He imagines Peter’s aunt inflicting her terrible cooking on his little sister while Peter whispers that he’ll figure out how to make a better version of the meal May is desecrating later, once the woman leaves. _

The stones lock into place, the resulting power surge causing him mind-splitting, searing pain, as if he’s lit his whole right side aflame. It’s by far the worst physical pain Tony has ever felt in his life, but it’s only second to the emotional pain of knowing _this is it_.

“And I…”

_Petey_.

“…am…”

_Morgie. _

“Iron Man_._”

_I’m sorry. _

He imagines one last thing. At least, he thinks he imagines it. Sometimes imagination and reality, when it comes to the life he’s lived, is one and the same. For all he knows, it could very well be reality. Or a dying man’s fevered dream. He doesn’t know. He’ll never know. What he does know is what he sees as life ends for him. A quick moment that he’ll hold in his heart into the forever-after that comes as a result of death:

His Morgie, grown up. Her hair is long, curled. She’s wearing makeup. She has on a dress. She’s graduated college. From the cap on her head, he knows she’s gotten her doctorate. From the look of her, she’s only a few years older than he’d been when he’d gotten his doctorate, so the apple’s not falling far from the tree.

His Petey, grown up. He’s taking pictures of Morgan, trying to preserve the moment visually. He’s dressed nicely, and the only thing wrong about his appearance is that his tie is this messy thing around his neck that looks nothing like he’s surely intended. That, and his bright red Converse sneakers. That, and if you look carefully, you can see a bit of the Spider-Man costume peeking out from under the collar of his shirt.

They’re together, smiling, laughing, _being_. Alive and happy. Alive and together.

And he knows in that moment he’d make this choice in every lifetime if he had to if it means that can happen, because he loves them that much. More than what could be explained or quantified even though that goes against the very basis of who Tony is as a person.

He was only given fifteen minutes to prepare for his fate.

It would never be enough, but if that’s all he’d get, he’d take it again and again and again if it means his imagining of the future had a shot of coming true.


End file.
